“All the roads
leading out of the capital are cut. Iraqi security and US troops can
only get through in heavily armed convoys. There is a wave of assassinations
of senior Iraqi officers based on chillingly accurate intelligence.
A deputy police chief of Baghdad was murdered on Sunday. A total
of 52 senior Iraqi government or religious figures have been assassinated
since the handover. In June 2004 insurgents killed 42 US soldiers;
so far this month 75 have been killed…the
number of Iraqi military and police being killed every month has risen
from 160 at the handover to 219 today… Homes in Baghdad are
currently getting between six and eight hours' electricity a day. Nothing
has improved at the power stations since the hand-over of security
a year ago… In recent weeks there has also been a chronic shortage
of water…talks may indicate
a growing sense among US military and civilian officials that they
cannot win this war.”

“Andy Mosher
and Bassam Sebti with Naseer Nouri draw the curtain back on the real
Baghdad, a Mad Max scene of unpredictable explosions, scattered
body parts, inadequate and undependable electricity, lack of refrigeration,
water sabotage, and weeping madmen: 'Nearby, a scruffy young
man in dirty pants and an unbuttoned shirt stood staring at vegetables
scattered on the ground by one of the explosions. Bending over and
picking up an onion spattered with blood, he began to cry. "Every
one of you in Karrada calls me Crazy Ali," he said to no one in
particular. "But I would never do such a thing. I am better than
you sane people. At least I do not hurt you.’”

“US
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged that security
in Iraq has not improved statistically since Saddam Hussein's fall
in 2003… More than 900 people, mostly Iraqis, have died in insurgent
attacks across the country since the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim
Jafaari took office six weeks ago.” Mr.
Rumsfeld also used the occasion to blame, in part, Syria and Iran for
this.

“I
was a soldier for most of the time between 1970 and 1996… Nowadays,
when I talk with some of you… I hear many who have very serious
reservations about these wars of occupation. I had more than reservations
from the get-go about Iraq and Afghanistan, and I opposed them as hard
as I could, and so did millions of other people around the world. But
that brain-dead… in the White House who is legally your boss,
and all his handlers, starting with Vice President Dick
"Halliburton" Cheney they sent you to do this thing anyway… A
young friend of mine… recently told me, ‘My platoon sergeant
tried to get us to violate the Geneva Convention, and when we resisted, he
threatened us with punishment. He told us that 'the Geneva Convention doesn't
exist in Iraq, and that is in writing at the Brigade level.’' … It
didn't come from the Brigade level, though; it came from… George W.
Bush's office. And it's a lie."

“’The
US confirmed to my officials that they had not used MK77s [firebombs]
in Iraq at any time and this was the basis of my response to you,’ ... ‘I
regret to say that I have since discovered that this is not the case
and must now correct the position.’ … ‘The US has
used internationally reviled weapons that the UK refuses to use,
and has then apparently lied to UK officials, showing how little
weight the UK carries in influencing American policy.’"

Setting up permanent
shop. U.S. taxpayers forks over "$690 million for logistical
and security costs and $658 million for the construction of an embassy
compound to be built on an expedited schedule within two years." Some
contractors are earning quite a nice profit on this deal.

"Nearly all suicide
terrorist attacks are committed for a secular strategic goal -- to
compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory
the terrorists view as their homeland." Bottom line: U.S. occupation strategy increases the number of
the suicide attacks. The DOD and DHS have the data. Does
this mean that they'll heed the data and change their strategy? President
Bush addressed the nation on June 28 and said nothing will change.

"A senior US
military chief has admitted "good, honest" Iraqis are fighting
American forces." But evidence
to date suggests that the foreign fighters issue is blown way out of
proportion. On CNN, even Zbiniew Brzezinski said that we are "deceiving
ourselves" if we believe in this. Just look at the actual
number of foreign fighters captured in Iraq -- a tiny percentage. History
is an excellent guide, and it shows that what is called “insurgency” by
occupiers is simple occupation resistance -- people defending their
homes and wanting their lives back.

“President
ridiculed at interfaith rally… ‘We're watching
you very carefully and we're going to do everything in our power
to have you impeached for misleading the American people,’… Quoting
scripture and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hinson suggested the nation
is greedy and morally bankrupt and warned that America's fear of
terrorism is excessive and unhealthy.”

"US occupation
forces announced on their propaganda radio beamed at local residents
of ar-Ramadi that the US military would stop raiding houses and mosques,
would open roads to local people and turn the electricity and drinking
water supply in the city back on if local residents would cooperate by
informing the American occupation troops of the locations and bases
of Iraqi Resistance fighters operating in the city against the Americans." Please note that such collective punishments of civilians
are illegal and defined as terrorism by the Geneva Conventions. This
is clearly at odds with "spreading freedom," which we're
told the U.S. is doing.

“People who
are afflicted with war-related PTSD have different ways of coping,
and this is Jimmy Massey's way. Several times a month, he puts on his
old Marines uniform, his desert boots and his dark sunglasses. He throws
a big handwritten sign over his shoulder, and proceeds to walk down
the Main Street of Waynesville, North Carolina, population: 9,255. The
sign says: "I killed innocent civilians for our government." … When
Jimmy Massey walks down the Main Street, there are those who will spit
at him and call him a traitor. Twice, people have tried to run him
over in their cars.
… "You can call if fog of war if you wish but for me it was
murder," Massey says, "and I want Americans to know this."”

“The war
in Iraq is degenerating... a lot. For American troops, Iraqi police,
and Iraqi civilians, the last two months have been filled with dread,
death, and disfigurement. In spite of around-the-clock spin by the
administration and show-dog obedience by the bouzhie-press, the reality
of the war is filtering into the public's consciousness.”

“When the
Department of Defense insisted on keeping up their official version
of the rescue, I knew that inevitably some of Lynch's rescuers would
be hushed.” The story of the sudden deaths of those who knew the truth of
the Lynch myth broke just months after the military’s phony
hero/rescue story. This article revisits it.

"Russian Defence
Minister Sergei Ivanov spoke out against the U.S. Missile Defence
System, because it would set a dangerous precedent… America
has taken on the role that Nazi Germany had during World War II.
It has openly used torture and murder to attain what it cites as
information. But further than that, it has used Depleted Uranium
Shells against civilian men, women and children, knowing fully well,
that this is in violation of international agreements."

"In Venezuela,
that U.S. is bent on overthrowing the Bolivarian government of President
Hugo Chavez Frias, in an attempt to gain control of Venezuela's oil."

"Sunni leaders,
meanwhile, are complaining that a counterinsurgency campaign by U.S.-backed
Iraqi forces has poisoned the political climate." [...] "Kurds
want federalism enshrined in the new constitution to protect the autonomy
they've enjoyed in their northern region since 1991. Shiites and
Sunni Arabs see a strong federal system as a prelude to Iraq's breakup."

"The Spanish
government supports a Spanish judge's investigation into and prosecution
of three US soldiers implicated in the shooting of a Spanish TV cameraman
two years ago in Baghdad, Spanish Minister of Justice Juan Fernando
Lopez Aguilar said Wednesday." Unfortunately,
few people realize that targeting journalists is part of every war. Suppressing
the truth and keeping up appearance is critical to every side in a
war.

“Billion
Dollar Overcharges” Halliburton profits by hiring poor, foreign
companies to do their work for them, and paying them a tiny fraction. Also, “… the company would sometimes supply
food that was over a year past the expiration date or had spoiled
due to inconsistent refrigeration.When the United States military
occasionally refused the spoiled food, Halliburton truckers were
instructed to take them to the next base in the hope that they would
escape scrutiny. Worst affected were the non-American workers.
Mayberry says that Halliburton was supposed to feed 600 Turkish and
Filipino meals. "Although KBR charged for this service, it
didn't prepare the meals. Instead, these workers were given leftover
food in boxes and garbage bags after the troops ate. Sometimes
there were not leftovers to give them…. ‘I can unequivocally
state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR (Kellogg
Brown and Root) represents the most blatant and improper contract
abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career.’"

“Electronic
drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment
essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up
for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators.”

"Before America
went to war with Afghanistan, another war was underway -- against
its own people: the war to deceive America into attacking Iraq.
This is no longer a theory or conjecture; it is a documented fact." Read the article for a point-by-point summary to-date of
how this was waged.

“When Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made his scheduled appearances on the Sunday
morning talk shows he confirmed that the alleged meetings had taken
place saying, ‘Well, the first thing I would say about the meetings
is they go on all the time.’ Later, he would reinforce this suggestion
on Meet the Press when he was asked whether there had been ‘two
meetings between Iraqi and U.S. officials and some members of the insurgency.’ Rumsfeld
responded, "I think there have probably been many more than that." It
was all lies. When asked the next day whether such meetings
took place, US Commander in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey said, ‘Not
yet. Not, to the best of my knowledge, yet. We may start moving
there, but the first thing we want to do is meet with Sunni leaders.
And a lot of these folks claim they have leverage over the insurgents
that we've yet to see realized, frankly. But, to characterize them
as negotiations with insurgents about stopping the insurgency, we're
not quite there yet.’ What, no meetings? […] By
now, every American who is capable of reading a newspaper or watching
a TV should know that Rumsfeld is a compulsive liar, a serial liar,
a pathological liar.”

“Now we come
at last to the heart of darkness. Now we know, from their own words,
that the Bush Regime is a cult… You think this is an exaggeration?
Then heed the words of the White House itself: a ‘senior adviser’ to
the president, who, as The New York Times reports, explained the
cult to author Ron Suskind in the heady pre-war days of 2002. First,
the top Bush insider mocked the journalist and all those ‘in
what we call the reality-based community,’ i.e., people who ‘believe
that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’Suskind's
attempt to defend the principles of reason and enlightenment cut no
ice with the Bush-man. ‘That's not the way the world really
works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our
own reality,’ he said. ‘And while you're studying that
reality, we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can
study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors
... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’

“public opinion
is turning against the administration and the president will be devoting
a good bit of his time trying to convince the American public that
our policy should not change… The Bush administration
needs to level with the public about the difficulty of the job ahead
in Iraq rather than making general statements indicating that all is
well.”

“The present
enemies of truth and justice believe they can call a lie a truth;
an aggressive, senseless, unnecessary war a struggle against terrorism;
an illiterate moron a great leader; and the destruction of America
through fascism, deficit spending and militarism, sound policies.
They believe they can call anything whatever they want to and the
American people will accept it.”

“US public
opinion on the Iraq war dips with every dead soldier, and plummets
at the first sniff of defeat… The last fortnight has
revealed a growing impatience with the military misadventure in the
Gulf and an irritation with the White House's persistent denials
that anything is wrong.”

“Another ABC
News/Washington Post poll found that for the first time most Americans
-- 57 percent -- believe the Bush administration
"intentionally misled" the public in going to war in Iraq… US
Vice President Dick Cheney recently said that the insurgency is currently in
its "last throes" but US military officials have been less sanguine… Senator
Chuck Hagel, a senior Republican, said last week that the White House had lost
touch with reality in its dealings over Iraq.”

“’We
need honest answers, not pep rallies’ […] Last week,
Vice President Cheney said the insurgency is in its last throes,
but this week we're told to dig in for a 12-year battle. Have you asked your Secretary of Defense and Vice
President to offer the Troops a straight answer? […] Are
you prepared to tell America's parents that their children will be
needed to finish the job?”

“Nancy
Carroll didn't know schools were giving military recruiters her family's
contact information until a recruiter called her 17-year-old granddaughter. That
didn't sit well with Carroll, who believes recruiters unfairly target
minority students. President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act requires
school districts to provide military recruiters with student phone
numbers and addresses or risk losing millions in federal funds… ‘They're
not going to all the schools. They're going to the schools where they
figure the kids will have less chance to go to college,’
said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.). ‘It's an insidious kind of draft,
quite frankly.’” Was this the real purpose of the NCLB Act, which has failed
in its higher-profile purpose because no support was given to it?

“The
Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing
firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and
all college students to help the military identify potential recruits
in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches. The program
is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will
include personal information including birth dates, Social Security
numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what
subjects the students are studying... School systems that fail
to provide that information risk losing federal funds”

“With
the war in Iraq going badly and allegations of abuse by military personnel
widespread, young men and women are increasingly deciding that there's
no upside to a career choice in which the most important skills might
be ducking bullets and dodging roadside bombs… The Army is
so desperate for even lukewarm bodies that it is reluctant to release
even problem soldiers, troops who are seriously out of shape, or pregnant,
or abusing alcohol or drugs. And it is lowering standards for admission
to the junior officer ranks. For example, minor criminal offenses that
previously would have been prohibitive can now be overlooked… Recruiters … go
into the schools with a glamorous pitch, bags full of goodies for the
kids … and a litany of promises they often can't keep… A
soldier's job is to kill. I can still hear the drill sergeants in basic
training screaming at us decades ago: ‘What are you? What are
you?’ And we'd scream back: ‘Killers! Killers!’ And
the sergeants would say, ‘What is your purpose?’ And we
would shout: ‘To kill! To kill!’)” I
think of this when I hear military officers on the news, assuaging
the public over the latest massacre, saying, “our men are not
killers.” But it seems people are driven to become such
when they need a paycheck badly enough.

"Marcia tried
using call blocking. And that's when she learned her first hard lesson.
You can't block calls from the government... 'You don't want to be
a burden to your mom,' they told him. "Be a man." "Make
your father proud.' ... This time, when Axel said, 'Not interested,' the
sarge turned surly, snapping, 'You're making a big (bleeping) mistake!' ...
Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed
up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And
before Axel...knew or understood what was happening, Axel was whisked
away in a car."

"If that downward
trend continues, the specter of a military draft to fill the ranks
with able bodies is likely to loom large in Washington once again...
Chatfield said modern technology would enable the Selective Service
to conduct specialized drafts in the event that people with specific
skills such as linguists, medical personnel or computer experts were
in critical demand by the military." This
story dovetails nicely with the fact that draft boards have been
quietly re-staffing for over two years now.

“According to
Ephraim Halevy, former chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence service
and current national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, plans have been made for a substantial U.S. military presence
in the Middle East lasting decades... U.S. entanglement
in the Middle East in the name of
"democracy" has further destabilized the region and made violent
fundamentalist revolution more likely, especially in Saudi Arabia.”

* "Build new
alliances," meaning bag Europe, embrace India, which will be needed
in the confrontation with China.

* "Expand active
duty army by at least 125,000 soldiers," but given the active
Army's current shrinkage given its recruitment problems ­ driven
by current policy ­ he didn't breath the
"d" word, which would seem to be an essential component.

* "Create naval
and air forces that reflect a
"high-low" mix of capabilities," meaning gun boats (Littoral
Combat Ships) for the Navy and more air transports for the "expeditionary
land forces."

* "Increase 'baseline'
defense spending by $100 billion per year," meaning in excess
of $600 billion for DoD per year (baseline plus Iraq) and build on
that as unfolding operations pose additional requirements

"Create new networks
of overseas bases," which is explained as a "semipermanent
ring of 'frontier forts' along the American security perimeter from
West Africa to East Asia."

“What
can we do? What can we do when an American president dispatches ‘suspects’ to
third world countries where they will be stripped, wired up, electrocuted,
ripped open and tortured until they wish they had never be born?”

There is no Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi – he was reported
dead over two years ago, but that was small news then, forgotten
now in 1984-like fashion, but his specter rises seemingly whenever
blame for something big is demanded.

"Now they tell
us: 'U.S. intelligence has no evidence that terrorist Abu Musab
al Zarqawi visited Syria in recent months to plan bombings in Iraq,
and experts don't believe the widely publicized meeting ever happened,
according to U.S. officials,' reports Knight Ridder. [...] "Three
officials who said that the reports of Zarqawi's travels were apparently
bogus spoke on condition of anonymity because intelligence matters
are classified and because discussing the mistaken report could embarrass
the White House and trigger retaliation against them." [...]
"It is not so much that "some officials are still quick to embrace
dubious intelligence," but rather that they purposely create "flimsy
and bogus intelligence" (lies) as a matter of course." [...] "In
fact, there is no proof al-Zarqawi is doing anything-expect possibly pushing
up a tombstone somewhere in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq."

“Bill
Montgomery's ‘Form over Substance’ goes
beyond expressing skepticism about the shadowy stories coming out of
Iraq about top aides of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi being arrested. He suggests
that the stories are a combination black psy-ops operation to influence
public opinion, and scripted Hollywood entertainment value. I would
only add that it is now often forgotten that the major politicians
running Iraq are the same people who lied to the US public about Saddam's
WMD and about Baath links to terrorism, etc.”

THE SPECTER OF TOTALITARIANISM AND DICTATORSHIP

Psychology
has shown us that power-hunger is a disease, that lust for power-and-control
over others is the mark of serial killers. Many who seek power
and become leaders actually continue to lust to control absolutely
everything they can. Throughout history, leaders effect change
by fostering a climate of fear or emergency, then impose solutions
to alleviate the public fear, usually resulting in a loss of some freedoms. It
is done gradually, step-by-step, stripping away liberties in a fashion
that doesn’t affect everyone at once, and is orderly enough not
to provoke widespread resistance. This is always presented as
a
"benefit" or as a necessity for "security" of the people. It
has occurred countless times throughout history. Study ancient Rome,
Napoleonic France, Shogunate Japan, Nazi Germany, Stalinist North Korea. The TIA (Total
Information Awareness) network | 2 | 3 | 4 started
by the U.S. administration in 2002 already gathers data from myriad sources
about you and your activities. More visibly, a gradually worsening human-rights
record is a negative sign, but the U.S. criticizes others for the same offenses. The
vast network of US prisons worldwide is not yet well known among U.S. public,
nor is the vast number of U.S. military bases, nor the activities of the CIA,
nor the activities of the military on the ‘black budget,’ nor the
depth of the worldwide economic hegemony that the U.S. enjoys. Frighteningly,
the administration has now identified American animal-rights and environmental
activists to be the greatest terrorist threat in the U.S. – should this
escalate, could it mean bringing troops against Americans on U.S. soil?

The Power of Nightmaresis a documentary TV series that explores how leaders use
fear to further their goals -- and how they create or vastly inflate
threats to do it. It's a very old, well-worn psychological
strategy, and, thanks to "faith in our leaders," it continues
to work today.

“how the
good people of Germany could allow someone such as Adolph Hitler
to lead them into what became World War II. After all, before Hitler's rise
to power, Germany had a rich Christian heritage… Obviously,
one does not gain the trust and confidence of people by portraying
himself as a monster. Does anyone truly believe that the German
people would have supported Hitler if they had thought he was some
kind of ogre? As with most leaders, Hitler preached faith, family,
and patriotism. His speeches were laced with references to God. He
personally claimed Christ to be his Savior.” This
article details many more eerie parallels.

Most
Americans still don't realize that they are videotaped numerous times
every day. Their phone conversations are monitored. Their
computer activity is recorded. Train, plane, and hotel reservations
as well as all credit-card purchases are forwarded to a central database. In
the UK, cameras watch every busy city square. What about your
phone calls? "A series of sophisticated computer programs listens
to your phone conversation and looks for
"keywords" that suggest suspicious activity... We have a police
state far beyond anything George Orwell imagined in his book 1984," says
privacy expert Susan Morrissey. "The everyday lives of virtually every
American are under scrutiny 24-hours-a-day by the government."

“Some really
scary things are happening around here these days. ...perhaps the most
frightening prospect for Americans is an unfettered national police
force with the sole discretion to determine who can be investigated
as a potential terrorist. That's the impact of little-known proposals
to greatly expand the powers of the FBI... the government can label
almost any group or individual a terrorist threat…”

“fascism
is totalitarianism marked by forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism,
regimenting all industry and commerce, and bellicose nationalism… Fascism
reflects the constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs
and other paraphernalia, and flags are seen everywhere including flag
symbols on clothing. Fascism uses fear and the need for security as
its motivating force to persuade individuals that human rights can
be ignored in certain cases because of "need."Fascism
rallies individuals into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need
to eliminate a perceived threat whether it is racial, ethnic, religious,
sexual orientation, conservatives, liberals, communists, socialists
or any other group. Fascism controls the privately-owned
media through government regulation. Fascism uses the most common
religion in a nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion even when
the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to a fascist
government's policies and/or actions.“

“Bush
administration's desire to stifle dissent is going beyond herding protesters
into fenced-off and distant "free speech zones" during presidential
visits. They apparently view any and all opponents of President Bush
as criminals at best and terrorists at worst…. the message to
potential dissenters is crystal clear: If you disagree with what
your government is doing in your name, keep it to yourself. If you
wish to be vocal and visible in your opposition, the cops will do whatever
is necessary to shut you up.”

"For the life
of me I can't imagine why the media in the U.S. is so immobilized by
the Bush administration... Republicans believe everything Bush says.
When he tells them he needs a police state to save them from terrorists,
they believe him."

“The success
or failure of any kind of totalitarianism always comes down to the
symbiotic relationship between them, that is, how skilled the would-be
leaders are at gathering and maintaining a flock of True Believers. This
depends not only on the leaders' skills, but on how many people
are willing to become followers… These followers are totalists, and
recent events make clear that American society is increasingly awash
in them….”

"The Stockholm
syndrome is a psychological state in which the victims of a kidnapping,
or persons detained against their free will ­
prisoners develop a relationship with their captor(s). This solidarity
can sometimes become a real complicity, with prisoners actually helping
the captors to achieve their goals..."

“A federal agency
collected extensive personal information about airline passengers although
Congress told it not to and it said it wouldn't, according to documents
obtained Monday by The Associated Press. A Transportation Security
Administration contractor used three data brokers to collect detailed
information about U.S. citizens who flew on commercial airlines in
June 2004 in order to test a terrorist screening program called Secure
Flight,”

“Privacy rights
may disappear if a new Senate Intelligence Committee bill passes… The
FBI will write its own subpoenas - just as British customs officials
in the colonies did before the American Revolution - using general
search warrants (writs of assistance) to go into homes and offices
at will to look for contraband. These raids so inflamed 18th-century
Americans that the "general search warrant" was one of the
precipitating causes of our revolution.”

“The Social
Security Administration has relaxed its privacy restrictions and searched
thousands of its files at the FBI's request as part of terrorism investigations
since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, newly disclosed records and interviews
show. The privacy policy typically bans the sharing of such sensitive
information, which includes home addresses, medical information and
other personal data. But Social Security agency senior officials
agreed to an "ad hoc" policy that authorized the release
of information to the FBI for Sept. 11-related investigations because
officials saw a "life-threatening" emergency, internal
memos say... ‘But an ad hoc policy like this is so broad
that it allows law enforcement to obtain really sensitive information
by merely claiming that the information is relevant to the 9/11 investigation,’ Hofmann
said.
‘There appears to be very little oversight.’”

“The
Supreme Court refused Monday to be drawn into a dispute over President
Bush's power to detain American terror suspects and deny them traditional
legal rights… A year ago, the court ruled the Bush
administration was out of line by locking up foreign terrorist suspects
at the Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without access to lawyers
and courts. But justices declined to address a separate issue:
whether American citizens arrested on U.S. soil can be designated "enemy
combatants" and held without trial... Solicitor General
Paul Clement, the Bush administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, said
the lower court ruling ‘marks a substantial judicial intrusion
into the core presidential function of determining how best to ensure
the nation's security.’” They’ve
been working steadily toward this power for years. If not already,
soon it will be perfectly legal for masked men simply to take you away,
as long as someone declares you to be an “enemy combatant.”

“In
the end, most cases on the Justice Department list turned out to have
no connection to terrorism at all.” Evidence
suggests that the war on terrorism is a lot of “show.” But
we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars on it. Who
is getting that money?

·Relaxed
requirement of specificity for warrants for multi-use devices like
PDAs and computers with telephonic capabilities.

·DNA
collected from all terrorism suspects/DNA database information open
to all law enforcement.

·Less
judicial oversight of surveillance.

Federal, state and
local officials can now freely share information, regardless of the
original reason for gathering it. This includes information in your
credit reports, educational records and visa records. It also includes
information obtained by administrative subpoenas of any business, from
your ISP to your credit card company to your grocer. It also includes
DNA database information and information obtained through the secret
court processes of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Much of this sharing need not have any relationship to terrorism investigation... USAPA
II allows gag orders for subpoenas that force third parties to turn
over information about their friends, loved ones or customers while
making it unlawful for them to tell anyone except their lawyers about
the subpoena. In a similar vein, the law creates broad new exceptions
to the Freedom of Information Act for terrorism detainee information,
prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from warning the public
about environmental dangers from chemical releases and reduces the
ability of judges to force the government to present its evidence in
open court. Be careful what you read on the Internet. The
government may now monitor the online activities of innocent Americans,
and perhaps even track what Web sites you read, by merely telling a
judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information
that is "relevant" to an ongoing criminal investigation.
The person spied on does not have to be the target of the investigation.
This application must be granted and the government is not obligated
to report to the court or tell the person spied upon what it has done. Nationwide
roving wiretaps. FBI and CIA can now go from phone to phone, computer
to computer without demonstrating that each is being used by a suspect
or target of an order, or even specifically identifying the person
targeted. The government may now serve a single Title III wiretap,
FISA wiretap or pen/trap order on any person or entity nationwide,
regardless of whether that person or entity is named in the order.
The government need not make any showing to a court that the particular
information or communication to be acquired is relevant to a criminal
investigation. As with its predecessor, USAPA II contains many provisions
that appear to be nothing more than an opportunistic attempt to
increase governmental powers in areas unrelated to terrorism. In
other areas, while terrorism is included, the provisions are not limited
to terrorism-related investigations. These include government access
to credit reports, sentence enhancements for using encryption, and
sharing of some FISA-obtained information…”

"The House Judiciary
Committee hearing, with the two sides accusing each other of being
irresponsible and undemocratic, came as President Bush was urging Congress
to renew those sections of the post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism law set
to expire in September." Of
course, the act will be renewed. It seems that there is merely
an illusion of debate about important legislation these days.

“In
one case, a 68-year-old physician and U.S. citizen was hauled away
in handcuffs after his suspicious neighbors broke into his apartment
and discovered literature on flying. Another man, also a U.S. citizen,
was locked up after his wife was seen videotaping boats on Chesapeake
Bay by other drivers who thought she might be scouting the Chesapeake
Bay Bridge as a target…. ‘The material witness law has
been twisted beyond recognition,’”

“the
USA Patriot Act is prompting sharp criticism from some conservative
leaders who are otherwise among the most vocal allies of President
Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress… said conservative
activist Grover Norquist, every major conservative grass-roots organization
has expressed concern about expanding the Patriot Act.”

“Warren Apel,
a civil libertarian, has produced a website, The Burning Flag Page, which does an excellent job of
explaining the threat to liberty that is posed by the Congressional
move to ban flag-burning.”

“Americans
are complicit in the deaths and maiming of thousands of American
soldiers for no valid purpose. Americans are complicit in the
deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi women and children as
"collateral damage." No one knows how high the number is because
the Bush administration does not regard Iraqi lives as worth counting.”

“A
US senator has refused to apologise for comparing the actions of US
soldiers at Guantanamo Bay to those of Nazis, while others have decried
or defended the mandate and method used to hold prisoners there. US
Senator Dick Durbin on Wednesday refused to apologise for comments
he made on the Senate floor referring to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a ‘mad
regime’ like Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.”

“The
Senate's No. 2 Democrat has compared the U.S. military's treatment
of a suspected al Qaeda terrorist at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo
Bay with the regimes of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Pol Pot, three
of history's most heinous dictators, whose regimes killed millions… Mr.
Durbin said, ‘If I read this to you and did not tell you that
it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners
in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been
done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime’”

“The more we
learn about the Government's plan for pay-per-mile motoring, the more
shocking and frightening it becomes. This project will involve the
most intrusive system for spying on the citizens ever proposed in a
civilised state. Hitler and Stalin would have relished such a scheme. High
overhead, 24 hours a day, satellites will monitor the movements of
all 30 million vehicles in Britain... You may wish to see a new
church, join a social club or visit the headquarters of a political
party. All will be known. All will be logged.”

“The U.S. federal
government is prosecuting four Catholic peace activists from Ithaca,
N.Y., after a state court jury refused to convict them last year for
their antiwar protest at a local U.S. military recruiting station… ‘The
federal government is clearly trying to make an example of these people
and to intimidate future nonviolent protestors by charging these folks
with conspiracy," said Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola
University’ … ‘It is never OK to kill another
of God's children and it is especially grievous to send one's children,
our children to another land to kill other children,’ said
Clare Grady, a mother of two.” Have
you thought about why spreading a peace message can now get you prosecuted
by the federal government? Is this the “American way?”

“The White
House ordered the creation of a National Security Service inside
the FBI. And Bush sought to strengthen the hand of the new national
intelligence director over the FBI, giving him expanded budget and
management powers over the bureau. In a statement, the American
Civil Liberties Union said the FBI's new security service would lead
to an ‘erosion of constitutional protections against law enforcement
actions.’”

"The Beast system
is here right now. And worst of all, people are voluntarily giving
up this information, with some updating their profile every day with
their latest personal details... TheFaceBook.com’s connections
to the shadowy world of black ops don’t stop there. They recently
received $13 million in venture capital backing from Accel Partners.
James Breyer, the manager of Accel, sits on the board of National Venture
Capital Association (NVCA) alongside Gilman Louie, head of In-Q-Tel.
The CIA set up In-Q-Tel in 1999, with the goal of fostering companies
that provide “data warehousing and mining” in a “secure
community of interest.”"

"The appeals
court on Thursday rejected an appeal from federal prosecutors for a
new trial, citing a lack of evidence." That's right, folks,
still not a single person convicted of the massive plot that was required
to carry out the 9/11 attacks. Could it be because it didn't
happen anything like we were told it did?

“Highly recognized
former chief economist in Labor Department now doubts official 9/11
story, claiming suspicious facts and evidence cover-up indicate government
foul play and possible criminal implications.” This article lists some of the impressive evidence that suggests
that the story is not what it seems. After all, there was no
real investigation. All the conclusions were presented within
days of the attacks and have been stuck to ever since.

“Without
9/11, it would have been politically impossible for the government
to embark on military interventions in Central Asia and the Middle
East and launch an unprecedented attack on civil liberties at home.”

“Rodriguez's
story is so damaging – so damning – it literally blows
the lid off the government story, literally exposing the whole 9/11
investigation as a sham and a cover-up of the worst kind. And
it appears the cover-up also extends to the media.”

“The FBI
inspector general's report is, like all previous official investigations
into the events of 9/11, a cover-up for the state apparatus.These
investigations share one common feature: they completely exclude,
a priori, any question of government complicity in terrorist attacks. Instead,
we have the familiar litany of breast-beating over mistakes, complacency,
inattention and inadequate resources… The Democratic Party
is deeply implicated, supporting both the war in Iraq and the cover-up
of the role of the state in the 9/11 attacks. The Clinton administration
sought to provoke a confrontation with Iraq in 1998, but had to back
off in the face of public opposition to a new war in the Middle East—opposition
that was only overcome in the wake of September 11.”

“When Morgan
Reynolds called the official story about 9/11 bogus, it seemed like
the whole world stopped for a moment to listen. […]Two weeks
ago, the former chief economist in the Labor Department during President
Bush’s first term told the world he thought the WTC fell
from a controlled demolition, indicating 9/11 was ‘an inside
government job.’ ‘I never imagined how much support
there was out there for what I was suggesting occurred on 9/11… It’s
nothing new. The government has always lied about so many things. Look
at the Downing Street Memo, for example, the document confirming that
the Bush administration lied to us about its motives for getting into
the war. If they lied to us about this, what else? Well, 9/11
is just another example.’"

"...the analysts
who pushed the now discredited claim that Iraq's purchase of aluminum
tubes was for the purpose of furthering a nuclear weapons program,
have been richly rewarded for this conspicuous failure, receiving job
performance rewards in each of the three years since this grave error." Rich reward suggests that their jobs were very well done.

“Anyone
who still believes all the Anglo-American propaganda about the Iraq
invasion is now faced by deep disillusionment… Translation:
the US and British governments would concoct false charges against
Iraq to justify war. After Britain’s Attorney General warned
unprovoked invasion of Iraq would violate international law, Dearlove
noted with oily cynicism, `If the political context were right, people
would support regime change.’ Translation: use propaganda and
scare tactics to whip up war fever... Nazi leader Herman Goering
correctly observed, a government can get way with anything provided
it scares its citizens enough.”

“It
said that Blair agreed at Crawford that
"the UK would support military action to bring about regime change." Because
this was illegal, the officials noted, it was "necessary to create
the conditions in which we could legally support military action."”

“The release
of an explosive piece of paper called the Downing Street Memo has
Hinchey, almost 90 members of Congress and people around the world
in an uproar… Blair that Bush had already decided to attack
Iraq –
months before Bush brought the question to the U.N., and while he continued
to deny, both to Congress and publicly, any plans to do so… The
Times of London made the memo public May 1, and has continued to hammer
it in its pages… Until now, the story has been largely ignored
by the U.S. news media and dismissed by the Bush administration… calls
for a congressional inquiry into the questions raised by the memo are
growing louder, with some even discussing a Bush impeachment.”

"...this past
week, widely scattered newspaper editorialists roused themselves from
seeming acceptance of the continuing slaughter in Iraq to voice, for
the first time in many cases, outright condemnation of the war... some
at least are finally using the "L"
word, for lies... the latest Gallup polls find that 57% feel the war
is
"not worth it," ... The Minneapolis Star-Tribune called Iraq "an
unnecessary war based on contrived concerns. ... President Bush and those around
him lied, and the rest of us let them. ... Bush insists on clinging to the
thoroughly discredited notion that there was any connection between the old
Iraqi regime -- no matter how lawless and brutal -- and the terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001."

“Ministers were
warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an
American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a
way of making it legal. The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office
briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military
action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch
of President George W Bush three months earlier. The briefing
paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair's inner circle on July
23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was "necessary
to create the conditions" which would make it legal… Bush
and Blair agreed on regime change in April 2002and then looked
for a way to justify it.”

[Former Chief Advisor
to the Secretary of Defense] “Richard Perle has now admitted
that the invasion of Iraq was illegal according to the tenets of
international law, acknowledging that ‘international law ... would have required us to leave
Saddam Hussein alone.’”

“In
July 2002, the head of MI-6, Britain's secret intelligence service,
briefed Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet on U.S. plans to
attack Iraq. Sir Richard Dearlove ("M" to James Bond
fans) reported that U.S. President George Bush had decided to invade
oil-rich Iraq in March 2003, in a war "to be justified by the
conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence
and facts are being fixed around the policy." Translation:
The U.S. and British governments would concoct charges against Iraq
to justify war... British and U.S. intelligence agencies were
ordered to produce "evidence" to justify a war. In the U.S.,
faked
"evidence" and grotesque lies were fed to the frightened public by
pro-war neo-conservatives and frenzied national media. The U.S. Congress clapped
for war like trained seals… But as Nazi bigwig Herman Goering observed
correctly, a government can get away with anything provided it scares its citizens
enough.”

“Washington Post editors – having
already dismissed the leaked British government documents about the
Iraq War as boring,
irrelevant news – are
now turning to the tried-and-true tactic for silencing any remaining
dissent, consigning those who won’t go along to the political
loony bin… Though no one wants to say it, everyone in mainstream journalism
knows intuitively that there is no real risk in ripping liberals.
Most often, it’s a win-win. Not only can you write almost whatever
you want, but it buys the journalist a measure of protection from
conservatives, who have a long record of costing reporters their
jobs.”

“There is
nothing new in a government lying to their people to start a war. Indeed
because most people prefer living in peace to bloody and horrific
death in war, any government that desires to initiate a war usually
lies to their people to create the illusion that support for the
war is the only possible choice they can make.”

“Wisconsin
Democrats are calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush,
Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld… The
resolution contends that the administration
"lied or misled" the United Nations, Congress, and the American public
about the justification for the war. It cites the so-called ‘Downing
Street memo’ from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, as
well as reports from U.N. weapons inspectors as evidence of widespread deception.”

"Human rights
are in retreat worldwide, this year's report states, and -- most disturbing
of all -- the United States bears most of the responsibility for it.
Citing routine abuse of detainees, detention without trial, fishnet
roundups of men labeled "enemy combatants" without cause,
and U.S. attempts to circumvent both domestic and international bans
against terror, the report is a scathing indictment of U.S. dishonor
and international lawlessness. What's more, the report says,
U.S. actions, imposed by the military but sanctioned by the government,
justify repression, dictatorship and abuse by oppressive regimes everywhere."

The paper "is
a road map for terrorists and publication is not in the interests of
the United States,"" This is a public statement that censorship, hiding the
knowledge of things that may threaten you, is in your interest. “It
was the summer of 1976 when I took my first civics course... I was
18... Having come from a region where authoritarian regimes and political
repression thrive, I was fascinated with the American system of government.
By the end of the week, the professor asked us to research what he
called the "2 D's": dissent and due process, cornerstones
of American democracy.”

Read carefully, especially
the paragraphs following “The Patriot Act allows the deportation
of foreign nationals for providing
"material support" to any group,” and note that under USA PATRIOT
Act, the U.S. gov’t can now accuse you of anything it wants, call
it
“supporting terrorism,” arrest you, and not have to offer any proof
of their accusation at all. How’s that for good old American freedom! The
burden then falls upon you to prove that your activities weren’t
aiding and abetting
“terrorism.” And the government, by the way, is free to define “terrorism” any
way it wants. That’s one of the reasons that the “War on
Terror” will never end
– the definition will gradually be expanded to include more and more “enemies
of freedom.”

“The CIA informed
Italy's intelligence service it planned to kidnap an Islamic leader
in Milan two years ago… Neither Italy or the United States have
officially acknowledged the abduction, which made the news on Friday
when the Corriere della Sera daily in Rome reported that a judge had
issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents. The abduction has fueled
anti-US feelings in Italy. Osama Mustafa Hassan…was seized
in a street of Milan on February 17, 2003… He has been missing
since…. Hassan was the former imam of a Milan mosque which had
been placed under close watch following the September 11, 2001 attacks
in the United States. The CIA agents are suspected of abducting
Hassan and transferring him to the US military base at Aviano in northern
Italy, and from there to an Egyptian jail, where his entourage claim
he was tortured during interrogation…. Knowledgeable intelligence
officials told the Post that the CIA has conducted more than 100 such
apprehensions since September 11.”

“For many Italians,
the behaviour of the CIA agents betrays a contempt for territorial
boundaries that leaves them near-speechless… Italian investigators
are also fuming at the casual way the Americans sabotaged their own
investigations.”

“Workers in
warehouses across Britain are being
"electronically tagged" […] New US satellite- and radio-based
computer technology is turning some workplaces into "battery farms"
and creating conditions similar to "prison surveillance" […]
The computer can also check on whether workers are taking unauthorised
breaks and work out the shortest time a worker needs to complete a job.
[…] …the employee is unable to do anything without
the machine knowing or monitoring."

"...the national
grocery-store chain this week completed the first phase of a program
to equip all 120 of its stores with biometric scanners -- units that
allow customers to leave their wallets at home and instead use their
fingerprints to help pay for groceries."

“In the 2005-2006 school year, all parents will
receive written notice of new policies from your children's schools.
[…] The fact is that our president has mandated that every
American child, age 3 through 18, is federally ordered to be evaluated
for mental health issues and to receive
"enforced" treatment. […] What treatment does our president's
commission have in mind? The newest drugs in the pharmaceutical pipelines,
of course. The commission recommends "specific medications for specific
conditions." […] Welcome to President Bush's New Freedom Initiative
and New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Welcome to life-long profiling
and drug addictions, New Freedom-style. […] One of the state-of-the-art
treatments, and most expensive, is an implanted capsule – yes, that's
right, implanted. The capsule delivers medication into a child's body without
the child having to swallow a pill or the need for parental permission for
dispensation.” This is another Bush-administration bid to satisfy
corporations’ greed – this time, the pharmaceutical variety – by
officially sanctioning the identification of an endless supply of
“customers.”

"On a recent
trip to NY City... three gun-mounted, armored tanks/vehicles were
driving through the streets of Manhattan. ... I couldn't believe
how many people just waved at the armed soldiers peeking out of the
top, many even cheered loudly in support. Nobody took the time to say,
'Why the hell are armed soldiers and tanks rolling down the middle
of the street?!'"

"Rendition is
a covert operation under which even an innocent person may be forcibly
transferred to a state where he has committed no crime... Under both
the Convention and US laws, therefore, rendition is strictly prohibited
if the rendered person would be subjected to torture... Renditions
are now firmly associated with America, torture and Muslim states."

“The
U.S. Department of Agriculture has churned out three dozen radio and
television news segments since the first of the year that promote a
controversial trade agreement with Central America opposed by labor
unions… The USDA's CAFTA reports were produced while the
administration was dealing with the fallout over its practice of paying
journalists to tout administration policies.”

"When nine French
fighter jets and a weather plane from a French carrier taking part
in a joint exercise with Canadian Naval forces in the Atlantic off
New Jersey ran perilously low on fuel last Friday because of a freak
storm that prevented them from returning to their ship, they figured,
no problem. They weren't too far from the U.S. mainland, and so they
could just land at McGuire AF Base in southern New Jersey. No dice,
the Francophobe U.S. military told them." [...] "No national
American media mentioned this stunning--and potentially life-threatening--breach
of basic air etiquette by the U.S. military. And not for lack of knowing
about it... Even Soviet planes, at the height of the Cold War, weren't
turned away in emergencies. And this was an ally." Do
you think this is "just something that happened or is it a result
of belligerent policy -- another sign of the locking down of America. Do
you think our allies do this to us?

"Denmark will
not prohibit planes of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the
United States carrying terror suspects from flying across its airspace,
nor will it be responsible for such flights' violation of related international
laws, a senior official said Wednesday."

(UK) "Controversial
plans to make incitement to religious hatred illegal are being unveiled
by the government. Critics say the re-introduced bill - which bans
insulting words or behaviour intended or likely to stir up religious
hatred - will stifle free speech."

“The attack
was ferocious; a group of up to six men stomped on the head of
Hook, a former internal auditor at Los Alamos, with such intensity
that footprint marks were still visible on his swollen face days
later. A witness claimed that without the intervention of
the club's bouncer, Hook would have been murdered… former
whistleblowers and U.S. congressional investigators who claim that
people are risking serious harm by exposing flaws in the U.S. atomic
project at a time when the Bush administration is intent on resuming
nuclear weapons production for the first time in 15 years… The
attack last week came 48 hours before U.S. government investigators
were scheduled to arrive at Hook's home and scrutinize audits detailing
financial irregularities amounting to millions of taxpayer dollars
at the New Texas laboratory. Now he has been silenced… One
Los Alamos employee created a political storm recently after being
sacked for exposing large-scale theft at the lab. That followed the
unsolved death in 1999 of Lee Scott Hall, who had uncovered a serious
flaw in the troubled $1 billion (£700 million) weapons testing
program at the Lawrence Livermore laboratories, close ally of its
Los Alamos counterpart. The 54-year-old had been stabbed 10 times
in his bedroom. No motive was established for the murder nor was
anything stolen from his home. No one was ever arrested.”

“The latest
raids, which again did not result in any detentions or arrests,
sparked criticism of Australia's tough new security laws which allow
security agencies to raid homes and detain people suspected of having
information about terrorism. ‘You can be arrested because
ASIO think you know something ... that turns ASIO into some sort
of secret police,’ Fraser told local radio.”

“The New
South Wales Government wants to give police the power to search any
premises secretly so as not to tip-off suspected terrorists they're investigating… The
first line of defence against police corruption is knowing that the
police have a warrant, and that they're in your premises, and knowing
what they're searching for. Otherwise, what's to stop a police
officer planting something”

"animal-rights
activists are protesting research getting under way that uses pigs
to measure the impact of police stun guns... John Lewis,
the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, told a Senate
committee that animal-rights and environmental activists resorting
to arson and explosives are the nation's top domestic terrorism
threat."

WHAT’S REALLY GOING WITH ISRAEL/PALESTINE?

Background: No
one in the Arab and greater Muslim world doesn't connect the US/Iraq
struggle directly with the Israel/Palestine struggle. But thanks
to US media, there is virtually no one in the west that does. This
creates a deep misunderstanding among westerners about the conflicts
in which they now engage in the Mideast. Israel was created by
Britain and the US in 1948 by bulldozing a space out of the existing
geography and forcing the native population out of their homes, leaving
Israeli authorities with a territorial battle with those natives that
exists to this day. Why did they do this? Governments don’t
do things out of the goodness of their hearts (not that destroying
homes is a goodness anyway). If history is any guide, it was
so that the west would have a proxy, a presence, in that part of the
world, hence the close ties and continued support of Israel by the
US (at least $5 billion annually), with which it could not exist. Arabs
see powerful Israeli treatment of weak Palestinians as being funded
and therefore condoned directly by the US – thus the conflict. Yet,
US media is preoccupied with “Why do they hate us?” because
they won’t look at this issue. Trying to get a read on
the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the behavior of the Israeli government
offers interesting insights and raises questions. Many researchers
believe that Israel could achieve peace quite easily if it desired. Why
wouldn’t it? Well, there are political forces within Israeli
politics that actually want expansion of the country. Unfortunately,
that would mean more war. By the conditions of treaties, the
US must come to Israel’s defense if attacked (not the other way
around). So, for those who’d like to expand Israel, provocation
of attack actually works in their interests. Could this be happening? Unfortunately,
these questions are rarely raised in the US because advocates of Israel
have done an outstanding job of falsely equating criticism of Israeli
government policies with anti-Semitism, which it simply and certainly
is not. By calling government policies and a religion the same
thing, those advocates are also indicating that Israel is a theocracy. Israel
has also grown into a widely recognized but "secret" nuclear
power that is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

"The report in
the Maariv daily, confirmed by senior Israeli security sources, was
the latest public challenge to the Jewish state's official insistence
that its forces have abided by a strict code of ethics..."

“In public testimonies,
the troops alleged the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) routinely carried
out "deterrent gunfire" into Palestinian areas without a
specific target and also used Palestinian civilians to investigate
suspected bombs and as human shields during arrest operations… What
emerges from the testimonies is that far from being aberrations, abuses
of Palestinian civilians are institutionalised and come from the highest
levels of the army.”

"The most effective images are those of dismembered
bodies, screaming mothers and mourning fathers. But that is exactly why
the BBC World Service is considered 'hostile' here. It isn't because
of the Vanunu affair, but because of the images it broadcasts of everyday
suffering on the other side of the road, a ten-minute drive from the
safety of our homes, our swimming pools, our happy lives." [...] "I
was ashamed of myself the day I realized that I simply enjoy the feeling
of power. Not merely enjoy it, need it. And then, when someone suddenly
says no to you, you say: what do you mean no? Where do you get the chutzpah
from to say no to me?" [...]
"a boy of about six, passed by me at my post. He said to me; 'Soldier,
listen, don't get annoyed, don't try to stop me, I'm going out to kill some
Arabs.'"
[...] ""The very existence of the checkpoint is humiliating.
I guard, or enable the existence of, 500 Jewish settlers at the expense
of 15,000 people under direct occupation in the H2 area and another 140,000-160,000
in the surrounding area of Hebron. It makes no difference how pleasant
I am to them. I will still be their enemy. As long as you want to keep
these 500 people in Hebron alive and enable them to go about their existence
in a reasonable manner, you have to destroy the reasonable existence
of all the rest. There's no alternative."

“New weapon
knocks crowds off feet -- Sound blast triggers nausea, dizziness
The knees buckle, the brain aches, the stomach turns. And suddenly,
nobody feels like protesting anymore. […] … the technology
is believed to be similar to the LRAD - Long-Range Acoustic Device
- used by U.S. forces in Iraq as a means of crowd control.”

"THE ISRAELI
secret service spied on Jörg Haider, the right-wing Austrian populist,
using one of his closest aides to gather information on his contacts
with Arab dictators.... The revelations, in the news weekly Profil,
stunned the Austrian political class."

“A Pentagon
analyst has been indicted on charges of passing classified information
and documents about a Middle Eastern country to two employees of a
pro-Israel lobbying group and a diplomat from an unnamed country, court
documents show… officials had previously identified the lobbying
firm as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.”

Indictment Shows Washington Is 'Israeli-Occupied Territory'“Pentagon
analyst Larry Franklin's espionage case has uncovered a spy nest at the
top… Israel, a country passionately interested in U.S. policy
toward Iran – and aggressively pursuing a campaign to glean all
the information it can about the making of that policy in a clear effort
to shape it. The
indictment shows how the Israelis used AIPAC for that purpose… It's
just not credible that Franklin is alone in his disloyalty. He was and
is part of a larger group actively committed to a very specific ideological
bias, one that valorizes the role of Israel in spurring the U.S. to bolder
action in the Middle East.”

“Some Jewish
officials are more concerned about the US authorities' apparent interest
in snaring two America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) staffers
in an alleged spy scandal than with the future of AIPAC or their own
efforts in Capitol Hill.”

Carl
Cameron Investigates Part 1 - Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.?

This
is a propaganda article that admits Israeli spying but denies Israeli
involvement in terrorism. In truth-aversion, this is called a “limited
hangout” tactic. (Look it up.)

“Israel has
apologised for the spy scandal… two alleged Mossad agents,
Uriel Zoshe Kelman and Eli Cara, who were arrested in March 2004 and
charged with trying to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports…”

“Israel's usually
rock-solid relations with the United States were taking a battering
as a row over (Israel’s) arms sales to China escalated ahead
of a crucial visit to the region by Washington's top diplomat… There
is a crisis. It has been going on for about a year, and to my great
regret, even Sharon's visit to Washington didn't resolve this crisis…’”

"Surviving members
of the USS Liberty, a ship that was attacked by Israel almost
40 years ago, said Friday they filed a report with the secretary of
the Army about war crimes they said were committed against them...
Several survivors of the incident spoke about the events aboard the
Liberty and the years since. Shafer said everyone who survived the
attack was threatened with imprisonment. 'We have been muzzled
by our own government,' he said." Few people remember that Israel deliberately attacked and
nearly destroyed a U.S. ship in 1967. Investigation was halted
and would-be whistleblowers stifled with fear.

This
article nicely collects important points about the reality of Israeli
policies and raises the too-often-neglected point that valid criticism
of the Israeli government or its policies is not in itself anti-Semitic. But
many people have striven to connect the two.

Confronting Israeli
Myth-Making

“Propagandists
on behalf of Israel have held a corner on public discourse about the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict for the nearly six decades of Israel’s
existence, but these purveyors of the Israeli line have become increasingly
deceptive and malign -- and increasingly effective – with time.
The propaganda machine serving Israel disseminates a steady stream
of talking points and argumentation that today effectively controls
all public discourse, so that in media arenas large and small throughout
the country there are always grassroots propagandists available to
put out a uniformly favorable twist on Israel’s actions and always
to paint the Palestinians in black colors.”

"...plainly
geared to uproot Palestinians from an area that historically has been
known as Arab East Jerusalem and convert it into an integral, permanent
part of the capital of the Jewish state... The real terrorism is inflicted
on the Palestinians, who live in constant fear of bulldozers leveling
their homes without anything remotely resembling due process"

"The circumstances
surrounding the arrest of Pentagon analyst Lawrence A. Franklin for
passing classified information to two employees of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) would make a good thriller."

“Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have stormed a
hotel in the Gaza Strip in order to remove 150 Jewish extremists, who
had barricaded themselves inside for several weeks. The ultra-nationalists
had vowed to make the derelict Palm Beach Hotel their base of operations
to protest Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza.”

“The Syrian
minister also commended Hawi's resistance of the Israeli aggression
and his struggle for the sake of Lebanon's unity and ‘its national reconciliation
and the fraternal and historical relations linking it to Syria.’”

This
article explores U.S. demands on the U.N., despite heaping scorn upon
it, falling behind in paying its dues, and making a mockery of the
security council by vetoing every resolution (dozens of them) that
calls for sanction against Israel for egregious mistreatment of Palestinians.

“Israel is
especially pleased to see a once powerful Arab nation that refused
to give it recognition and aided the Palestinians, reduced to chaos,
division and weakness. It was Israel's zealots among American policy makers who
played a major role in getting the U.S. to invade Iraq… While
the innocent are programmed to fear Islamic fundamentalism, it is
the fanatic forces of Judeo-Christianity's most dangerous sects which
are the real threat. The lunatic liaison of evangelical Christians,
awaiting "his" rapturous destruction of everything in the
universe but them, with believers in a Hebrew messiah and "his" real
estate promise of their very own domain, represents a threat to
humanity far more serious than alleged Islamic fundamentalism.”

WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON WITH THE U.S ECONOMY?

Trend: The
government/media message is that the economy is growing, “in
recovery,” “doing fine,” etc. The goal is not
to incite panic, which could damage the economy. But then there’s
the truth – the economy is in worse condition than presented. It
is being propped up artificially by last-ditch measures that cannot
go on for long. The stock bubble of the late 90s has been transformed
into a housing bubble, the last major buttress of the system, the bursting
of which could bring on depression. Official rhetoric is misleadingly
upbeat. Official statistics are massaged to present a distortedly
positive picture. Massive wealth transfer from the middle and
lower classes to the super-rich continues to be enabled and abetted
by administration policies. We could very shortly be facing a
housing meltdown, followed by a broader-market meltdown.

“the administration
and its congressional allies continue the fiscal recklessness that
has been their hallmark since they got here. If they continue
to have their way -- and they recently added a new slew of regressive
tax cuts to their 2006 budget -- it will eventually be impossible
for government to fulfill essential functions, from safety nets to
investment in future technologies.”

The US Labor Force: One Foot in the Third World"The
US with a population approaching 300 million has only 10 million production
workers. [...] Economists and policymakers are in denial while the US
economy implodes in front of their noses." Corporate policies
are short-sighted and destructive to the U.S. economy.

"In the 1960's
America was a place in which very few people were extremely wealthy,
many blue-collar workers earned wages that placed them comfortably
in the middle class, and working families could expect steadily rising
living standards and a reasonable degree of economic security. But
as The Times's series on class in America reminds
us, that was another country. The middle-class society I grew up in
no longer exists."

The Federal Reserve
pointed out in its study last Thursday, which Greenspan referred to
in his testimony before the joint economic committee, although he didn’t
refer to it in detail and I could understand why – that the current
speculative bubble in real estate, even if it were to unwind in the
same manner as all other speculative real estate bubbles have unwound
in this nation, wherein there was experienced, over a 3-year period,
an average 17% decline in median home prices, which is the average
for the unwinding of a speculative bubble and is, indeed, the decline
we saw from the 4th quarter of 1989 to the 2nd quarter of 1991 when
the real estate bubble of the late 80's unwound–even this unwinding,
would, according to the Federal Reserve, lead to 20 million mortgage
defaults in the nation.

Many Americans
are living in a state of delusion, fed by the politicians who keep
telling us we're the greatest, the strongest, the freest, the
wealthiest, etc., etc., and so forth. Actually, we are heading toward
becoming a Third World country.

"Corporate
financial chiefs express concern over the continuing surge in the cost
of healthcare and energy." So few optimistic CFOs around
the world strongly suggests "we can expect to see sluggish economic
growth."

The Economist: “The worldwide rise
in house prices is the biggest bubble in history. Prepare for the
economic pain when it pops.”

“As tens
of thousands of engineering jobs migrate to developing countries,
many new entrants into the U.S. work force see info tech jobs as
monotonous, uncreative and easily farmed out - the equivalent of
1980s manufacturing jobs… The U.S. software industry
lost 16 percent of its jobs from March 2001 to March 2004, the Washington-based
Economic Policy Institute found. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
that information technology industries laid off more than 7,000 American
workers in the first quarter of 2005.”

"Bush
did not mention Friday's report from the Labor Department showing U.S.
employers added only 78,000 workers to their payrolls in May, the weakest
job growth in nearly two years. The figure fanned fears on Wall
Street of a slowing economy. Stock prices slid nearly 1 percent."

"Despite the widespread belief that the U.S.
remains a more mobile society than Europe, economists and sociologists
say that in recent decades the typical child starting out in poverty
in continental Europe or in Canada has had a better chance at prosperity.'
[...] In 1973, the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay was 43-to-1. By 1992,
it was 145-to-1. By 1997, it was 326-to-1. By 2000, it hit a sky- high
531-to-1."

"...a
brazen move by the Bush administration to shift the SEC toward an even
more openly pro-corporate policy. It portends an end to the probes
into corporate fraud that have occurred in the wake of Enron, WorldCom
and other business scandals... [...] ...an indication of
the determination of the administration and its backers to eliminate
all constraints on the most wealthy and corrupt sections of the American
ruling elite."

The value of China’s
yuan has been pegged to the dollar’s for a decade, making it
impossible for the US currency to gain on China’s.

IS THE U.S. DEMONIZING CHINA?

Trend: The
war of words and actions is heating up as the U.S. appears to be preparing
to blame China for an upcoming collapse of the American economy, brought
on in part by the expensive projection of U.S. power around the globe. Actually,
it is already laying such blame, but it will take a larger story before
it is programmed into the minds of average citizens. Some regional
experts expect that a China-Taiwan conflict will actually be the next
major world conflagration – a tragedy that would draw into it
other world powers.

“Chinese
leader Hu Jintao will arrive here Thursday to sign a joint declaration
on world order in the 21st Century… Russia and China will
announce the unacceptability of monopolizing global affairs, dividing
states into those who lead and those who are led, imposing models for
social development from the outside and applying double standards….” This is very obviously all about world outrage over U.S.
foreign policy.

“if
China, Russia or even North Korea were to detonate a single nuclear
weapon in the upper atmosphere it would produce an electromagnetic
pulse, or EMP. One nuclear weapon detonated in near space would
therefore melt down the entire electronic communications network of
the United States. That could ruin the U.S. economy and utterly
disrupt society”

“A
member of the Ukrainian parliament Vladimir Sivkovich demands that
U.S. ambassador to Kiev, John Herbst, be expelled for interfering in
the country’s internal affairs, Interfax news agency reported.”

"The Iraq war
has left an enduring impression on the minds of people around the world
in ways that make them very suspicious of U.S. intentions… People
in other countries who had unfavorable views of the United States were
most likely to cite Bush as the reason rather than a general problem
with America.”

U.S. DEMONIZING IRAN AND SYRIA

Trend: despite
the news reporting Iran's full compliance with international law regarding
nuclear development, the U.S. has been voicing ever more loudly and
frequently its suspicions about Iran. We already saw this with
Saddam Hussein and his cooperation with weapons inspectors before the
March 2003 invasion by the US. It did no good – notably
because the US had already planned to attack (see Downing Street Memos
articles above).

"Experts from
the UN nuclear watchdog have inspected an underground uranium enrichment
plant in Iran and verified that the country has kept its word by freezing
all sensitive nuclear work there." Evidence
suggests that Iran is doing nothing to which it isn't entitled with
regard to nuclear development.

"Mounting evidence
gathered over several years has convinced US and foreign intelligence
agencies that leading terror suspects have been living inside Iran." It
has been proved that the war against Iraq was prosecuted on the
basis of a pre-existing plan to invade, and that phony intelligence
and false "evidence" was used in a campaign to win public
support for it. After the battle of blame about ignoring the
real intelligence settled down in 2004, the administration cleared
out all the dissenters in the intelligence agencies in a
"reorganization." Some say that Iran has been the real target all along. If
so, how confident are you about this evidence?

"Weldon exposes
warnings from his source that Iran will attack America next; that Iran,
not al Qaeda, is actually the nexus of Islamic terrorism; and that
Iran has an advanced nuclear program." But, look at who
is claiming this secret source -- Rep. Curt Weldon (Republican, Pennsylvania)
is vice chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and chairman
of the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Tactical Air
and Land Forces.“

"The CIA dismissed
renewed claims Thursday by a U.S. politician that an Iranian exile
provided credible information about a terrorist plot to hijack a Canadian
airliner and fly it into a nuclear reactor near Boston... U.S. intelligence
agents have identified the man as a close associate of another Iranian,
Manucher Ghorbanifar, branded as a fabricator by the CIA in the 1980s."

"...asked Galloway
if he thought an invasion of Iran was on the horizon. Galloway was
confident that massively opposed public opinion would stop an attack
from taking place, unless a staged terror attack carried out by the
military industrial complex and blamed on Iran was carried out."

“according
the Anti-Defamation League's 2005 American Attitudes Toward Israel
and the Middle East.” Polls
are often meant to create public opinion, not to measure it. Best
to know the source of the poll. First, you advocate something
(the ADL advocates Israeli policies), and then you produce a poll that,
naturally, shows wide support for your idea.

“North Korea
and Iran are reportedly in secret talks to build underground bunkers
to hide Iranian clandestine nuclear weapons project…
Britain's Sunday Telegraph quoted Japan's Kyodo news agency as saying
that Pyongyang and Tehran are discussing whether the North Koreans
will build the bunkers for the Iranians or act as advisers to Iranian
construction companies.”

“Saboury
asserted the arrangement left no room for Iran diverting the fuel to
military purposes. “Bushehr is entirely under the supervision
of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). The fuel will be
verified before it is sent to Iran and the IAEA inspectors will be
here to open the seals,” he said.“

US DEMONIZING VENEZUELA

Trend: The
U.S. has successfully overthrown democratically elected leaders in
South America before when they wouldn’t play ball with US corporate
interests – which means taking payoffs to allow exploitation
of resources, which enriches governments but leaves people dirt poor. The
US is openly hostile to the twice democratically elected leader of
Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Chavez has been feeding the hungry and
housing the poor with public money, and speaking out against nations
that don’t like this idea of spreading national wealth. Generally,
sharing a nation's wealth with all its citizens doesn't sit well with
the rich and powerful – it empowers too many ordinary people. Venezuela
is an OPEC nation, oil rich. Naturally, the US wants as much
control of that oil as possible, making Chavez’s and Bush’s
policies mix like oil and water.

“The
plutocrats rule America behind the clever guise of a constitutional
republic rife with corruption. With an unmatched ferocity in embodying
the “traits of success” discerned by Steinbeck, their Neocon
representatives in the government vigorously protect the interests
of the wealthy and tirelessly push the American system of corrupt avarice
on the rest of the world… Chavez has tenacity. He was
elected president of Venezuela in 1998 and again in 2000 by significant
margins of victory. Contrary to claims of corruption by the Bush administration
and its media lap-dogs, international observers declared both elections
to be free. Chavez survived a coup attempt in 2002, which was openly
supported by the Bush administration… In a poll conducted
in February of 2005, Chavez's approval rating in his country was 70%... What
the Neocons would not give to use their military might to crush Chavez
and seize the bountiful oil fields of Venezuela.”

"Washington and
other critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did say that although
twice elected, the Venezuelan President is showing authoritarian tendencies
in office." Chavez: "He argued that the US government
backs terrorists, invades nations, tramples over its own people, and
seeks to install a global dictatorship."

"A U.S. proposal
to intervene in Western Hemisphere nations to push democracy rankled
the leaders of several South American countries debating the
issue Monday at the meeting of the Organization of American States.
[...] The United States has not established how or where
the OAS should intervene, but one likely target is Venezuela. The
OAS also is concerned about political instability in Ecuador and
Bolivia."

“Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez on Sunday blamed his US counterpart George W.
Bush for the crisis in Bolivia, saying Bush's
"poisoned medicine" of free-market democracy has been rejected by
Latin America.” The friendly sounding term, “free-market
democracy” is another one that has come to mean something entirely new
under the current administration -- namely, opening developing countries for
more efficient looting of their resources by the West, and if cooperation fails,
in will come an orchestrated regime change by whatever means necessary.

"In Venezuela,
that U.S. is bent on overthrowing the Bolivarian government of President
Hugo Chavez Frias, in an attempt to gain control of Venezuela's oil."

THE NORTH KOREA DOUBLE STANDARD

Trend: The
US continues to treat North Korea with a double standard. Even
though NK is the world’s worst and most brutal police state,
is already a nuclear power, has openly and directly threatened the
US, and officially teaches anti-US sentiment to its children, the Bush
administration goes and attacks defenseless nations in the Mideast,
stating conditions that far more accurately describe North Korea. Why? It’s
almost as if some nation other than the US were directing US foreign
policy.

"North Korea
has said it would interpret U.N. penalties as an act of war.
But it is not clear whether North Korea actually would consider military
action or whether the statement was just more of the country's harsh
rhetoric."

“"North
Korean (DPRK) leader Kim clearly told me that the North is ready to
scrap all of its long-range missiles, as soon as bilateral diplomatic
relations are established (with the US)," Chung was quoted by
South Korean Yonhap News Agency as saying in a cabinet meeting presided
over by South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan.”

THE UZBEKISTAN DOUBLE STANDARD

Trend: U.S.
continues support of Uzbekistan, calling the nation an ally. What
could be the reasons? The U.S. has, since 9/11, chummed up with
Islam Karimov, the ruthless dictator of Uzbekistan, who runs a stone-cold
police state, engages in torture, and is known to boil his political
opponents to death, literally. In exchange for a U.S. thumbs
up on his totalitarian regime and the OK to label his opponents
“Muslim terrorists,” Karimov allowed the U.S. military to build
bases and to set up a rendition agreement via which the US drops off prisoners
at Uzbek prisons for rounds of torture. In May, Karimov’s men massacred
peaceful anti-government protesters who had gathered in Andizhan – a
horrific tragedy that got, not surprisingly, short shrift by the US media.

Karimov said "we
have enough facts to prove that the operation was prepared for several
months and perhaps several years in advance from outside Uzbekistan." "It
was a carefully planned operation, involving prepared mercenaries,
rather than street democrats and the crowd," the Interfax news
agency quoted him as saying.

U.S. POLITICS – HOW NICE, GIVING, HONEST, TRUSTWORTHY AND JUST
ARE WE?

Trend: Heartbreakingly,
most Americans seem unaware of the changing face of American policy
at home and abroad. Are traditional American ideals eroding under
leadership that doesn’t respect them? This news just doesn’t
seem to be sinking in. Sinking world opinion of America affects
us all.

Debating Guantanamo
Amnesty's chief goes head-to-head with a White House lawyer about Guantanamo

Consider that propaganda
is among the most powerful and necessary tools of war for all governments,
and always has been. Is it possible that the Newsweek story of
flushing the Koran was likely planted so it could be disproven and
implant the idea around the world that the U.S. servicepeople don't
behave this way? Well, it would distract nicely from the plain
fact that careful news readers already know of numerous accounts and
even admissions of tearing, dunking, stomping on, tossing in trashcans,
and urinating on the Koran by U.S. personnel at Guantanamo and other
prisons.

"This has become
the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists
around the world." [...] "Conditions at Guantanamo,
where suspects are held without charge and without access to legal
representation, are rapidly becoming a public relations nightmare for
the White House."

“Washington
has for the first time acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners
have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as
well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said on Friday…. UN sources said it was the first
time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture
from US authorities.”

"It's that attitude
that some employees of the Pentagon, State Department and White House
are urging President Bush to take when dealing with charges of Quran
desecration and other allegations from radical Muslims." In
a speech, they want him to say, "I want to make it very clear
that neither this administration nor the American military nor the
American people owe an apology whatsoever to the religion of Islam
and its believers. The American people have every right to take enormous
pride in the respect which our military treats believers in Islam,
and in the fact that the American military is not just the most powerful
but the most humanitarian fighting force in the history of humankind."

“…critics
say Washington's increasingly high-profile involvement in security
in West Africa risks fueling a growing resentment of U.S. foreign policy
and radicalizing some in a region largely known for moderate forms
of Islam.” Same dumb mistake – antagonizing and inflaming local
sentiment, thus creating a terror threat where there was none.

"The 52.3
trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in Bolivia-reserves presently
in the hands of foreign capitalists-are minimally worth $120 billion.
This means that financial resources exist in Bolivia for improving
the living conditions of the whole population. The resources exist
for job creation, better salaries, and expanding free services." But as in most developing countries, wealthy elite of the West pay third-world
government leaders (who line their own pockets) for a smooth ride,
ensuring that the local populations remain poor and powerless.

“What is going
on with the Bush administration? Earlier this year it was the First
Lady cracking risque jokes at the White House correspondents' dinner. Now
purveyors of degrading hardcore porn will be dining with the party
that champions family values.”

“quote Republicans,
both named (Newt Gingrich) and unnamed, as saying that the Bush administration
has been in a "permanent campaign" mode, aimed at energizing
right-wingers, instead of governing and trying to pass legislation-which
of course requires working out compromises in Congress. This is really
quite an admission. Isn't ‘governing’ what people
elect a president to do? …even his own backers in Congress don't
think he has been doing much governing; that rather, he is just running
a permanent campaign aimed at attacking critics and winning the hearts
of his ‘base.’ That's not to say nothing is going
on. What Bush and his gang are doing is systematically bankrupting
and looting the country and handing the ripped off proceeds to corporations
and the wealth in a way David Stockman could only dream of….”

“The secret documents recently disclosed by the
National Security Archive throw new light on the responsibility of
the government of the United States--and especially of the CIA, which
was directed at that time by George H. W. Bush--in the horrendous mid-flight
destruction on October 6, 1976 of a Cuban civilian airliner and the
murder of all 73 people on board. We already knew… Washington
was aware of the plan to carry out this terrible crime… But,
what is now known… the US government itself sought to save the
terrorists, with US diplomats in Caracas conspiring to do so with some
local officials.” What do you
think of letting people be killed to make your opponents look bad?

“One of the
great mysteries of the Nuclear Age was solved today: What was in
the censored, and then lost to the ages, newspaper articles filed by
the first reporter to reach Nagasaki following the atomic attack on
that city on Aug. 9, 1945? … Others have suggested
that the real reason for the censorship was the United States did not
want the world to learn about the morally troubling radiation effects
for two reasons: It did not want questions raised about the use of
the weapon in 1945, or its wide scale development in the coming years.”

“facility
receives "about 150 alarms a day" from the 22 radiation portal
monitors at the site. That's more than 10 times the number of false
alarms originally expected.” This
project was an immense waste of taxpayer money, but someone got very
rich from it.

“It's
not hard to understand why the millionaire, with the power to satisfy
so many desires, might want to claim another's bread. But why does
the chauffeur open the door? Why do about half of lower- and middle-income
Americans approve of tax cuts that favor the rich and budget cuts that
deprive the poor?”

“Hitler knew
that ‘[a]ll propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its
spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those
towards whom it intends to direct itself.’ His propaganda specialist,
Joseph Goebbels, noted that ‘[i]f you tell a lie big enough and
keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.’ Goebbels
then stated what has become a truism for all modern political systems: ‘[i]t
is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public
opinion,’ urging underlings to ‘[t]hink of the press as
a great keyboard on which the government can play.’”

“The Government
of the United States of America is now of, by and for the Corporations.
These are the same corporations, the Corporatocracy, to whom the
people of the USA have bequeathed a literal and legal eternal life,
while at the same time allowing their own corporate
"best interests" to override the needs and interests of the very
citizens who made all that largess possible… Maybe, we have become nothing more than pod people
without the capacity for critical thought… In the final analysis
we are destroying all that makes each of us valuable - to ourselves or to others.”

“the
American public, absorbed by the conflict in Iraq, is largely ignorant
of U.S involvement in Colombia, to which Washington has provided more
than $3 billion in mainly military aid to fight rebels and the cocaine
trade since 2000.”

“The West's
geostrategic objective is to weaken Russia, to prevent it from becoming
a superpower again, and to turn it into a compliant donor. This is
why Russia is being surrounded by security cordons and
"hostile regimes" are being established around it…" Prokhanov
said. According to him, the attack against Russia includes the introduction
of foreign standards and values in Russian society. ‘Hollywood is as
important as the CIA in this attack, and the eastward advance of NATO is as
important as young Russian men wearing T-shirts with the American flag,’ the
writer said. ‘And the consequences of this attack are unpredictable.’ Yakovlev
said there was certainly a conspiracy against Russia, but it involved Russian
bureaucrats who were ‘greedy, corrupt and despised their own people.’ He
said the goal of this collusion was personal power and enrichment... Yakovlev
was shocked by the results of a poll according to which 80% of Russians view
America as the country's main enemy.”

“Boys
from Africa are being murdered as human sacrifices in London churches. Police
believe such boys are trafficked from cities such as Kinshasa where
they can be bought for a little as £10. The report, leaked ahead
of its publication next month, also cites examples of African children
being tortured and killed after being identified as "witches" by
church pastors. The 10-month study was commissioned after the death
of Victoria Climbié, who was starved and beaten to death after
they said she was possessed by the devil… The true figure
for missing boys and girls is feared to be several thousand a year.”

RELIGION

Trend:
religious extremism and fanaticism is on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere. History
gives a clear picture of religion dividing people and being used politically
to set them against each other, and is used to divide them still today. Why
are the people who claim to be the most faithful to their religions
the ones who seem most intolerant and the first to advocate killing
others to get what they want? Bush, Bin Laden, and Sharon would
all seem to fit into this category. Remember what Reverend Jerry
Falwell said about America’s enemies, “Blow
them all away in the name of the Lord.” That makes “religion
devotion” sound very empty – no more than words. People
are so easily swayed by words, when it is actions that matter most.

"Almost 40 percent
said religious leaders should try to sway policymakers, notably higher
than in other countries. [...] In contrast, 85 percent of French object
to clergy activism - the strongest opposition of any nation surveyed.
[...] Many countries other than the United States have been through
bloody religious conflict that contributes to their suspicion of giving
clergy any say in policy."

"Despite the separation of church and state being
enshrined in the US constitution, more than 40 per cent of US citizens
said religious leaders should use their influence to try to sway policy-makers."

“When
televangelist Jimmy Swaggart said he would kill a homosexual who looked
at him romantically, he violated the ethics code of the Canadian Association
of Broadcasters, an industry panel has ruled… Swaggart
also said that politicians who are undecided on the issue of same-sex
marriage ‘all oughta have to marry a pig and live with him forever.’” Such comments by popular ministers suggest a high-level
of confidence that they can express their true hatreds and intolerances
and still be accepted by their followers. In fact, such an expression
would seem to be a desire on Swaggart’s part to instill his hatred
into his followers. Listen for increasingly violent denunciation
of opposition by the intolerant, followed by backtracking, followed
by pushing the envelope yet again. That appears to be the pattern.

“The endless
parade of Christian pundits and security analysts on CNN these days
is more than an attempt by the beleaguered cable giant to do one better
than rival news corps in "outfoxing" the competition. Not
content with FOX's spectacular success as the profit-driven propaganda
arm of the US government, the religious right has set out to erase
the distinction between the pulpit and the news desk across the media
spectrum (never a wide one in the first place) -- a feat they have
managed to pull off with the cooperation of the nervous corporate elites.”

The Christian right
has launched a series of boycotts and pressure campaigns aimed at corporate
America -- and at its sponsorship of entertainment, programs and activities
they don't like… ‘The Christian right is incredibly mobilized,’ says
Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship,
a 30-year-old alliance of 50 nonprofit groups. Bertin says, ‘There's
been an explosion of local book and arts censorship -- a lot of activity
by an emboldened grassroots, who think they won the last election on
moral grounds.”

“The leader
of a conservative Christian lobby group appears to suggest that gays
should be required to wear warning labels, although he denies that
was his intention… The issue of labels is particularly sensitive
to gays. In Nazi Germany they were forced to wear the pink triangle
to differentiate them from other internees at concentration camps.”

Lost to the Only Life They Knew
“Officials say more than 400 teenage boys have fled or been driven from
a polygamous sect… more than 400 teenagers - some as young as 13-
who authorities in Utah and Arizona say have fled or been driven out of the
polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City over the last four
years. His stated offenses: wearing short-sleeved shirts, listening to
CDs and having a girlfriend. Other boys say they were booted out for going
to movies, watching television and staying out past curfew. Some say
they were sometimes given as little as two hours' notice before being driven
to St. George or nearby Hurricane, Utah, and left like unwanted pets along
the road. Authorities say the teens aren't really being expelled for
what they watch or wear, but rather to reduce competition for women in places
where men can have dozens of wives. ‘It's a mathematical thing.
If you are marrying all these girls to one man, what do you do with all the
boys?’ … ‘There is a virtual Taliban down there. You
tell people this stuff happens and they don't believe it…’" A
good example of leaders exerting power and control (in this case through religion)
strictly for their own purposes.

DO THEY WANT TO SHUT DOWN THE INTERNET?

Trend: Freedom
of the press is for those who own the presses. No one owns the
Internet, so, as a bastion of self-publishing and free speech, it is
an obvious danger to those who seek to control through censorship and
suppression of expression. Thus, there is a clear acceleration
of negative press against the 'net -- more and more ills will be blamed
on it. It will be made to appear such a
"threat" that the masses will eventually call upon their government
to regulate it in some way, and probably make a buck off of it in the process. Remember
the old days of television when there were locally produced shows (other than
the cookie-cutter news broadcasts). How about old radio when there was
such thing as a regional hit because DJs actually chose what to say and play? Radio
and TV have long since been swallowed up by national corporations that have
homogenized these media and strictly control the messages that come out of
them. Why should the internet have a different fate. I guess they’d
need an excuse first – thus calling the internet “the recruitment
choice of terrorists,” “a dangerous place for kids,” and
a “security nightmare.”

"the
latest in a series of recent data-security failures involving nearly
every kind of institution that compiles personal information - ranging
from data brokers like ChoicePoint and LexisNexis to financial institutions
like Bank of America and Wachovia to the media giant Time Warner to
universities like Boston College and the University of California,
Berkeley."

“A flurry of
disclosures of breaches affecting high-profile companies including
Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and DSW Shoe Warehouse
has prompted federal lawmakers to draw up legislation designed to better
protect consumer privacy. CardSystems was hit by a virus-like
computer script that captured customer data for the purpose of fraud,
Gamsin said. She said she did not know how the script got into the
system. The FBI was investigating… ‘Hardly a week
goes by without startling new examples of breaches of sensitive personal
data, reminding us how important it is to pass a comprehensive identity
theft prevention bill in Congress quickly,’
said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.”

“The crackdown known as
"Operation Murambatsvina [Drive out rubbish]", which the United Nations
says has left some 200,000 people homeless, has been condemned by Zimbabwe's
churches, teachers and doctors.Police have met some resistance from township residents
in Bulawayo while demolishing what the government calls "illegal structures".President Robert Mugabe said it is
needed to "restore sanity" to Zimbabwe's towns and cities.”

“JUDGING by
his position on global warming, it wouldn't be surprising if President
Bush believes the Earth is flat and the Moon is made out of green cheese. That's
how far removed from scientific reality Mr. Bush is on global warming.
His continued insistence that immediate action isn't warranted is irresponsible
and dangerous… The Bush administration has its own take
on science, however. If you don't agree with a scientific report, just
change the wording.”

"A White House
official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse
gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that
play down links between such emissions and global warming, according
to internal documents."

“A former oil
industry lobbyist who changed government reports on global warming
has resigned in a long-planned departure, the White House said Saturday. Philip
Cooney, who was chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental
Quality, left Friday, two days after it was revealed that he had edited
administration reports on climate change in 2002 and 2003. His
departure was "completely unrelated" to the disclosure, White
House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.[...] The White House
defended the changes, saying they were part of the normal, wide-ranging
review process and did not violate an administration pledge to rely
on sound science.”

“President's
George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto
global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil,
the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according
to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.”

“Millions
of people could lose their homes and livelihoods as the world's deserts
expand because of climate change and unsustainable human activities,
an environmental report warned on Friday… It said that global warming was likely
to exacerbate the problem, causing more droughts, heat waves and
floods.”

“Researchers
fear using the drug on animals and humans could lead to drug resistance. Drug-resistant
forms of H5N1 - a bird flu strain - have already been found in Thailand
and Viet Nam, according to reports.“

"governments
will impose a police state that will make all the ID cards and airport
checks look like a tea party. You'd not be allowed to move anywhere
without showing off a vaccination certificate... security consultant
Bruce Schneier says: 'One of the things I routinely tell people is
that if it's in the news, don't worry about it. By definition, 'news'
means that it hardly ever happens. If a risk is in the news, then
it's probably not worth worrying about. When something is no longer
reported - automobile deaths, domestic violence - when it's so common
that it's not news, then you should start worrying.'"

“The
US government's elaborate cover-up of mad cow dangers in the United
States has begun to unravel. Twenty-four hours after our successful
protest with Organic Consumers Association of a US Department of Agriculture
mad cow safety stunt in St. Paul, USDA Secretary Johanns was forced
to admit that a cow tested last year and declared safe in fact DID
have mad cow disease. I've often charged that the USDA is hiding
US cases of mad cow by using the wrong testing procedures and by failing
to conduct food safety tests on millions of animals and this announcement
proves it.“ In a land where corporate and government power are so thoroughly
blended and magnified (this the definition of fascism according to
Benito Mussolini), it may be wise to assume that corporate interests
will always be served before public ones, regardless of threats to
public safety.

INTERESTING SCIENCE

"A Canadian scientist
who recently returned from a trip to measure the Pole's current location
says it has now left Canadian territory and crossed into international
waters... in 2001, scientists discovered that it was picking
up the pace, suddenly charging ahead -- and toward the edge of Canadian
territory -- at more than 40 kilometres per year."

“A new study
uses advanced brain-scanning technology to cast light on a topic that
psychologists have puzzled over for more than half a century: social
conformity… The researchers found that social conformity showed
up in the brain as activity in regions that are entirely devoted to
perception. But independence of judgment - standing up for one's beliefs
- showed up as activity in brain areas involved in emotion, the study
found, suggesting that there is a cost for going against the group… ‘We
like to think that seeing is believing,’ …But the study's
findings… show that seeing is believing what the group tells
you to believe… ‘It suggests that information from
other people may color our perception at a very deep level.’ … The
implications of the study's findings are huge….” Yes, people will actually deny the testimony of their own
eyes and ears if they are socially pressured to believe something different,
and our most “successful” leaders know it. Remember
in George Orwell’s 1984 when Winston Smith said that if
the party told you that two plus two equals five, you’d have
to believe it?

"A quarter of
all Americans met the criteria for having a mental illness within the
past year, and fully 25 per cent of those had a "serious" disorder
that significantly disrupted their ability to function ... Although
parallel studies in 27 other countries are not yet complete, the new
numbers suggest the U.S. is poised to rank No. 1 for mental illness
globally..."

"Gentlemen! We
have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow
the United States government." So begins a statement being delivered
by Gen. Carl W. Steiner, former Commander-in-chief, U.S. Special Operations
Command. At least the voice sounds amazingly like him. But
it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing"
technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
... PSYOPS seeks to exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments,
militaries and populations. Digital morphing — voice, video, and
photo — has come of age, available for use in psychological operations.
PSYOPS, as the military calls it, seek to exploit human vulnerabilities
in enemy governments, militaries and populations to pursue national and
battlefield objectives. [...] The Gulf War hologram story might be dismissed
were it not the case that washingtonpost.com has learned that a super
secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very technology
for PSYOPS application. The "Holographic Projector"
is described in a classified Air Force document as a system to "project
information power from space ... for special operations deception missions.""

“Archaeologists
have discovered Europe's oldest civilisation, a network of dozens
of temples, 2,000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids. More than 150 gigantic monuments
have been located beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany,
Austria and Slovakia. They were built 7,000 years ago, between 4800BC
and 4600BC. Their discovery, revealed today by The Independent,
will revolutionise the study of prehistoric Europe, where an appetite
for monumental architecture was thought to have developed later than
in Mesopotamia and Egypt… Why this monumental culture collapsed
is a mystery.”